“This Equals That is printed like a children’s board book, with rounded edges and durable pages to make it a durable, child-friendly object. But its lessons aren’t limited to the young: how simple and powerful it is to recognize that a triangle and a shark are the same shape, that everything we can see is somehow connected to each other?” —Spectrum Culture, June 16, 2015

Aimed at children aged five and up, this clever and surprising picture book by artists and collaborators Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin, takes young viewers on a whimsical journey while teaching them associative thinking and visual language, as well as colors, shapes, and numbers. Through a simple narrative and rhythmic sequence of photographs, the book raises multiple meanings, making the experience of reading the book interactive—parent and child must ask questions and come up with their own answers, drawing on the child’s imagination. Each spread presents a new relationship that changes and shifts as the book unfolds, with the last picture relating again to the first, forming a circle. Through playful and inspired sequencing, everyday scenes are transformed into a game of pairs, enjoyable for adults and children alike.

Jason Fulford (coauthor, born in Atlanta, 1973) is a photographer and cofounder of the non-profit J&L Books. He is a contributing editor at Blind Spot and a frequent lecturer at universities. His monographs include Sunbird (2000), Crushed (2003), Raising Frogs for $$$ (2006), The Mushroom Collector (2010), and Hotel Oracle (2013).

Tamara Shopsin (coauthor, born in New York, 1979) is a graphic designer and illustrator whose work has been featured in the New York Times, GOOD, Time, Wired, and Newsweek. She is the author of Mumbai New York Scranton and designer of 5 Year Diary. She is also a cook at her family’s restaurant, Shopsin’s, in New York.

Learning guide available for download:This Equals That Learning GuideThis free Learning Guide is intended to inform educators about the publication This Equals That, so they are better able to lead students of all ages in meaningful discussions surrounding its content. For more information about Aperture's educational resources contact [email protected].